Wow!! What a wonderful week it has been! I am truly grateful for all of the support and love that you have sent me! Thanks for the Easter wishes!!
This week was busy, but so good! We were busy getting everything ready for Adam's baptism. That kid is so awesome! I think that it was a really great experience for him and I am so grateful to have been a part of it!
Monday was good. Low key. Which is nice once in a while. We stayed here on the mountain and just did some stuff that we needed to get done.
Tuesday We tracted for 4 hours and then we had an appointment with Adam! We taught him the law of tithing and fasting. Then we went to a dinner appointment with a couple in our branch. He is in the Stake Presidency so I hadn't ever met him before, but I had seen his wife once or twice. They are a really great couple! We had these yummy chicken turnovers and salad! Tuesday night it was storming really bad! I could hardly sleep because the thunder was so loud. One even shook the house for a good minute. It was crazy!! Thank goodness that no trees fell over! There was a tornado up on the mountain a few weeks before we got here, which is rare. But luckily there wasn't too much damage.
Wednesday we were able to go do some service. We went to a place called the Clothes House here on the Mountain. It's kinda like a small Goodwill. We were able to help sort donations and hang up clothes. It was fun to be able to get to know some of the other ladies in the area and to be able to help out. We don't get very many service opportunities so we are actually going to be doing this every Wednesday now! :] After service we walked home(which is about 2 miles away) and then we did companion study because we couldn't do it that morning. After that a couple from Utah took us to Applebees in Chattanooga. They are such a fun couple. They live in Murray and she knows our new mission president that will be coming in July! She said that he is super funny! I am excited to meet them, but sad to say goodbye to President and Sister Griffin.
On Thursday we did our weekly planning and then we went tracting for a little while. There is this awesome house up by where we live. The guy that lives there has all sorts of lanterns in his trees and he just hung up some beautiful flower pots all over in his trees!! His house is beautiful! I will have to take a picture and send it to you! We walk by there almost everyday. So it is fun to see all of his hard work coming together!
Friday we had district meeting in Chattanooga as usual. I love that building! It is an old Civil war era house!! It is so gorgeous! I'll send you a picture of that too! We went to lunch at this cute little diner! It was really yummy food! And we had a lot of fun talking and laughing! I love the missionaries in my district! We also had the Zone Leaders there too which is awesome! I don't get to see elder Condie very often anymore so it was good to see him again. And elder woller is fun too! After District meeting we went tracting and then we had a dinner appointment and a couple's house. They are an older couple and they just got back from visiting their son that lives in Dubai! They had this awesome book that they showed us from their trip! There is the tallest skyscraper in the world there! It is HUGE! It would be cool to go see it someday!
Saturday was really good!!! Sister Shumway and I went tracting and then we went to Adam's baptism. It was weird because the other ones that I have had my companion and I did everything to get it set up and ready, but this time our branch mission leader did all the work! It was nice to be able to just show up and see Adam! It was really cool because Adam's dad that isn't a member.. yet... ha ha... came and even his non member grandparents come too!! They had a good experience and Adams dad came and told us thanks so much for helping teach his son! On Friday, Adam and his family went to Atlanta to go through the temple open house! they had a really great experience! It was so good to see the light that was in his eyes after he was baptized!! He is such a good kid!
Sunday was beautiful day! I love Easter so much!! And to add to the happiness, Adam was confirmed a member of the Church!! What a great blessing for him! His dad and Grandparents came to that as well! Miracles I tell you! It was a really spiritual sacrament meeting too! The talks were all about gratitude and the Savior! Brother Youngblood (our mission leader in the branch) talked about how on his mission the first week they had to go to a funeral for a little boy that died and Bro. Youngblood just said that the mother was crying so hard and just asking "where is my son?" over and over. All he could say in his broken Spanish was "he still lives." He said how much he wished that he could comfort this mother and tell her all about the reason that he knows that her son will live again. But he couldn't because of his broken Spanish. It was such a good story! I know how that feels. I have had so many experiences where I wish that I could just tell the people here how much this message, this gospel is what they need! They need the saving power of the Atonement and the only way that they can truly apply the Atonement is through entering the waters of baptism.
Then in relief society a woman gave a beautiful lesson. She told this story of all these flowers that were in a garden. A woman had a vase and she wanted to pick the prettiest flower that she could put in the vase. So she went out to the garden and picked a yellow rose. She put the flower in the vase and a few days later she heard the flower talking to her. The rose asked why the woman had picked her out of all the other flowers. The rose told of the other beautiful flowers how they were prettier than her. They smelled better than she did. They were bigger, taller, brighter than she was. So the woman returned the yellow rose to the garden and picked a pink daisy. A few days later the pink daisy said the same things that the yellow rose had been saying to her a few days before. So the woman returned the pink daisy to the garden and grabbed a lily. The lily said the same thing. SO the woman finally figured out that the flowers were all equally beautiful in their own right. So she picked one of each and put them all in the vase where together they were happy. The lesson in the story was that every one of us is different. We were all created that way to bless each other. To lift each other. and we always tend to think that others are prettier, thinner, funnier, etc than we are. But we are all Heavenly Father children! We are all beautiful! I learned so much from that story. It is funny because it's so true! And together we can make a beautiful bouquet. My job is to find those other beautiful flowers and bring them home to be in the vase with the rest of us beautiful flowers! I am trying to help others feel the love that Heavenly Father has for us! I love this work. I am so grateful to be me. I am so glad that I am who I am! I love my Heavenly Father for creating me the way that I am and I need to remember that!
So here is my testimony of Easter. He lives! I know it. I haven't seen Him. I haven't felt the prints in His hands and in His feet and in His sides, but I have felt Him. I have felt Him close in some of the deepest, darkest hours of my life... and I am so grateful to know that He is always there! That he does live! I know it with all of my heart! I love this work! I love this gospel. I am so glad that I am able to be here learning and growing and bringing other people to our Savior. His Atonement is real. It is so much more personal than we will ever be able to comprehend. It is so beautiful. I am so grateful that Jesus Christ suffered and finished the work that he was sent to do so that we can return to live with our Heavenly Father and him again. I love him so much!!
I love you all! Have a blessed week!
Sister C.
